On January 14, 2004, Valfar went out on a walk towards his family's cabin at Fagereggi, but he never arrived. Three days later, authorities found his body at Reppastølen in the Sogndal valley. Valfar had been caught in a snow storm and suffered death from hypothermia.

He was buried at Stedje church in Sogndal on 27 January 2004.

Windir was started as a one-man project, but expanded into a full band with the release of the 3rd album, 1184. Valfar originally sang his lyrics in Sognamål, a dialect of Norwegian, but eventually switched to English in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience.